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CORVALLIS - Most of the students who graduate this spring from Oregon State University will be sending out job applications, making career plans, taking a short break or settling into a 40-hour-a-week position. But some have plans that are a bit more adventurous.

These OSU grads are packing their bags for unusual jobs in faraway lands, starting to learn unfamiliar languages and getting ready for what will probably be one of the more exhilarating, tough and rewarding experiences of their lives - they've joined the Peace Corps.

More than 40 years ago, President John Kennedy stood on the steps of the student center at the University of Michigan and asked a group of students if they would be willing to serve their country and the cause of peace by living and working in the developing world. The reaction that day was enthusiastic, and since then thousands of college students, along with many others, have continued to respond to this challenge. OSU students were early participants and remain strongly involved in the program.

In June, Nerissa Custer will graduate from OSU with a major in liberal studies and minor in communication. A Corvallis native, she's used to working with young people through years of employment at the Boys and Girls Club. But her next job will have a whole new set of challenges.

"My Peace Corps assignment is in Ghana, Africa," Custer said. "I leave on Sept. 18, and will be working with communities teaching health education and basic hygiene with a focus on HIV/AIDS education. The Peace Corps has been a dream of mine for a long time now and I'm quite excited to begin the journey."

Custer says she will miss Oregon, but is already revving her life up to a faster speed. Even before leaving for Africa in a few months, she plans to squeeze in a trip that will take her to Korea, South America and Arizona. She says she's "looking forward to the next chapter in my life."

In a ranking published in January of last year, OSU was 19th in the nation with 38 applicants who were accepted into the Peace Corps. The interest level is sufficiently high that since 1980 the Peace Corps has supported a small office at the university, which is usually staffed by a previous Peace Corps volunteer and helps interested people find out more about the programs, opportunities and challenges of this historic initiative.

Since last September, 24 OSU graduates have been nominated to serve in the Peace Corps and the majority of them will leave on their assignments in the next six months. English teachers will be headed both to Mongolia and Russia. An environmental educator will serve in Benin, on the coast of Africa.

An OSU computer science grad will be assigned to the Eastern Caribbean, and both a forester and crop agriculture expert will work with the Peace Corps in Honduras. More assignments are pending.

Virginia Montgomery of Beatty, Ore., will receive her bachelor's degree in psychology this June from OSU, receive three month's training in natural resource management through the Peace Corps and then head off to her assignment in South America.

"I'm going to work with people on new agricultural techniques in places where they do a lot of slash-and-burn agriculture," Montgomery said. "I first got interested in the Peace Corps when a friend of mine joined a year ago, and I've always wanted to travel outside the U.S."

New or recently graduated college students have always been a key source of volunteers for the Peace Corps, which provides many people an overseas experience, exposure to new cultures, language training and an immediate, practical application for almost every skill they have ever learned. Participants receive a monthly living allowance, health and dental care, and a modest stipend to help them get readjusted once their two-year term of service is over. But no one joins the Peace Corps for the money - it's a whole new life experience.

Ryan Schuchard graduated from OSU a couple years ago with a bachelor's degree in business administration, with an emphasis in finance and international business. Since then he has kept busy backpacking alone through the Middle East and Eastern Europe, sailing in the Caribbean, and camping and skiing across North America. While at OSU he was active in many leadership activities and served on student clubs and in fraternity positions. But all that may seem tame compared to his next adventure.

"I'm scheduled to depart in August for a business advising assignment in Central Asia, either in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan or the Kyrgyz Republic," Schuchard said. "Business volunteers are an integral part of the Peace Corps carrying out its missions, and the program is an outstanding way for recent college graduates to gain practical business and cross-cultural exposure. Of course, learning a language intimately and becoming a part of humanitarian service are bonuses."

Schuchard said at the end of his 27-month Peace Corps career he hopes to enter a master's program, either in public policy, international development or law. And he said he looks forward to recording his Peace Corps experience on a website to help interest other volunteers, and later sharing his experiences with other students.

There are Peace Corps openings for people with a wide range of skills, such as business development, community agriculture, environmental engineering, animal husbandry, forestry, farm management, health care, math and science education, urban planning, information technology and many other areas.

Interest in the Peace Corps is actually surging, officials say. In 2000 the volunteer program reached its highest level in 26 years with more than 7,300 volunteers and trainees serving in 76 countries around the world. The ultimate goal of the organization is to field a group of 10,000 volunteers.